Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Preseason

A: do you know what the deal is with Norma #1?
A: "Hasmik Papian"?
J: yeah she's supposed to be good, though Greg finds her ordinary
A: hrm
J: probably better than Guleghina
A: ok
J: we waited in line for 4 full hours yesterday
A: there are really non without stupid Farina, huh
J: F-ing Farina is in all of them
A: so
A: weak
A: what were you waiting for?
J: oh just a bunch of balc box stuff
J: my new obsession is balc box 1
A: interesting
J: the one right up at the stage
A: did you have an experience with BB1 recently?
J: well last year we sat there for those national council finals
J: and I was very pro
J: and then we sat there for Cesare
J: and it was sort of great
A: nice
J: and $15.
A: they were selling for the whole year?
J: yeah
J: the line wrapped around the Met lobby 4 times, went out the door and past the fountain
A: dude
A: I think my priorities are as follows, in no particular order
J: ok
A: T n' I
J: natch
A: Walkure
J: natch
A: Otello
J: yeah
J: despite Guelfi
A: oh balls
J: total balls
J: continue
A: Norma
J: despite Farina
A: War and Peace
A: In the second tier of things that could be awesome but aren't pressing life list things
A: we have
A: The Gambler
A: Peter Grimes
A: and I'd like to see Fille du Regiment for the CDF
A: JDF
A: and one of the Dessay outings
J: yeah I think the Lucia will be sort of awesome
A: oh
A: I forgot that its new
J: with Dessay
J: right
A: despite Dessay and all, I was having a little trouble getting stoked about that lame old production
J: totally
A: with Levine conducting no less
J: we skipped a bunch of key things yesterday that we wanted to wait until we could afford decent tickets for
J: so we ended up with:
J: Lucia (Season opener)
J: Figaro
J: Butterfly
J: Aida
J: Norma
J: Manon Lescaut
J: Macbeth (new prod opening)
J: and Otello
A: nice
A: I might throw the MacBeth on my pile too
J: the rest of the premieres require some saving
A: which cast did you do
J: as even the cheap seats are $50
J: we did opening night of Macbeth
A: dang
J: T und I and Walk may require balc
A: yeah
A: oh
A: Roschmann is Countess in the Figaros
J: yeah
J: she is awesome
A: trying to come on a weekend and paying the weekend prices is annoying
J: yes
J: ugh
J: the only semi-affordable Saturday seats are fam circ boxes
J: even then it's $27 for sucky seats
A: I suppose I should wait to figure out classes in case I have weird days off
J: oh yeah
A: and try not to choose classes based on their opera vacation potential
J: that will be the tough part

Good call on Satyagraha. Consider that added to the batch of non-lifelist priorities.

Ditto on Macbeth. I will gladly holla at TBA anytime if it means no Grewwwwber. Get the net. Seriously. It would be super fun if they came up with someone really good for that.

My dissing of Guleghina Norma is admittedly pure hearsay...a quick literature review of the 'sphere can't really conclude otherwise. But I'm more than willing to be convinced otherwise about it. I get that its a very difficult, very awesome part, but I don't know if I fully condone the excesses of the Norma Ministry...

Amen to that. That being the "excesses of the Norma Ministry." People who make dramatic back-of-hand-to-forehead gestures and say we have to pull Norma out of the rep for twenty years make me want to resign my membership in the ranks of opera lunatics. It's a hard part, sure. More than many things, it requires temperament, technique, and raw materials. But whatevs, if a gal gets two out of three, it can still be totally worth showing up for. Gruber's just basically one out of three, alas. Guleghina, maybe once upon a time 3/3 but a lot of wear and tear has made it a frightening prospect with some hope in it.

Actually the REAL shonde is that ar one time Farina had a real future aheadof him, a Lensky in ONEGIN being so beautiful you thought a fine new tenor was on the scene. Then he shouted it into coarse bellowing. Sad. He coulda beena contenda.